64 ELECTROCHEMISTRY OF ORGANIC COMPOUNDS.

electrolysis of a sulphuric-acid solution of glycol, besides the
formation of hydrogen, carbon mon- and dioxide, arid oxygen,
that trioxymethylene, glycolic acid, formic acid, arid a sub-
stance isomeric with-glucose were present in the solution.

In phosphoric-acid solution the results arc* similar.

Glycerin.—Ilenardl also investigated the behavior of glycerin.
In the electrolysis of a dilute sulphuric-acid solution he obtained
besides the gases, hydrogen, oxygen, carbon monoxide and
dioxide,—trioxymcthyleno, formic acid, acetic acid, glyceric
aldehyde, arid a body to whose barium compound he gave the
formula (CsHaO^Ba (glyceric acid?). Further electrolysis of
glyc&ric aldehyde gave the ordinary oxidation products, and,
as in the case of glycol, a substance closely related to ordinary
glucose. Stone and McCoy2 found similar results in acid
solution.

Bartoli and Papasogli3 repeated these experiments, varying
the material of the electrodes, and obtained the following
results:

Carbon anode and platinum cathode gave trioxymethylene,
formic acid, glyceric acid, a substance similar to glucose, and a
resin.

Graphite and platinum electrodes yielded the same products,
but a larger per cent of formic acid was formed on using the
latter. Mellogen was formed at the positive electrode.

Experiments on the electrolysis of glycerin in alkaline solu-
tion were made by Werther,4 Itcnard,5 Voigt,6 and Stone and
McCoy.7 As principal products there* resulted acrolem and
acrylic acid, besides glyceric aldehyde or its condensation
products, and glyceric acid, graphitic acid, formic acid and,
according to Voigt, also propionic acid.

1 Compt. rend, 81, 188 (1«75), 82, 562 (1876).

2 Amer. Chem. Journ. 15, 666 (1803),
8 Gam chim. 18, 287 (1883).

4 Journ, prakt, Chem, 88, 161 (1868).

6 Compt. rend. 82, 562 (1876).

8 Ztschr. f. angew. Chcmie 107 (1894).

7 Amer. Chem.* Journ. 15, 656 (1893).

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